1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor device that includes field effect transistors.
2. Related Art
“Silicon large-scale integrated circuit” is one of the fundamental device technologies that will support the advanced information society in the future. High performances through highly sophisticated functions, high-speed operations, and low power consumptions have been achieved by minimizing the size of each semiconductor element such as a CMOS (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor) logic device or a flash memory. In recent years, however, it is difficult to achieve high performances by making devices smaller, due to various physical limitations.
With the gate electrodes formed with conventional silicon in CMOS logic devices, there have been problems such as the apparent existence of gate parasitic resistance due to increases in device operation speed, decreases in effective insulating film capacitance due to carrier depletion at the insulating film interfaces, and variations in threshold voltage due to penetration of added impurities into the channel region. To counter those problems, a metal gate technique has been suggested. By the metal gate technique, the conventional silicon is replaced with a heat-resistive metal material, so that the problems such as the gate parasitic resistance, capacity decreases due to depletion, and penetration of impurities can be collectively solved.
Meanwhile, a so-called full silicidation (FUSI (fully silicided gate) technique has been suggested. By the FUSI technique, a CMOS transistor is formed by a conventional silicon gate technique, and a metal gate is obtained by causing a silicon gate to chemically react with a metal and turning the silicon gate into a silicide (silicidation). Since a metal gate can be formed while the other procedures such as post oxidizing procedure remain the same as those of the conventional silicon gate technique, the FUSI technique is a very useful metal gate technique.
The FUSI technique also has an advantage in that a ±0.3 V work function shift can be caused, with the work function of a silicide being the center point, by segregating the dopant atoms at the interface between the silicide and the gate insulating film.
The gate insulating film needs to be formed with a high-k material having a higher dielectric constant than any conventional material, so as to restrain an increase in device power consumption due to an increase in leakage current. Particularly, a hafnium-based material is considered to be most useful, because of its high heat resistance and excellent electric properties.
Here, it is only natural to combine the FUSI technique and a high-k material in future products, and it has been believed that such a combination can provide CMOS logic devices with much higher performance. In reality, however, a so-called Fermi level pinning (FLP) phenomenon is caused at the FUSI/high-k interface, and the threshold voltage Vth of the transistor cannot be set at a desired low value. More specifically, where a gate insulating film containing a hafnium-based material such as HfSiON or HfO2 is used, the apparent work function shifts to an energy level that has no relation with the work function of a silicide. Also, a work function shift cannot be caused by segregating the dopant atoms (as disclosed by K. Takahashi et al., in “Dual Workfunction Ni-Silicide/HfSiON Gate Stacks by Phase-Controlled Full-Silicidation (PC-FUSI) Technique for 45 nm-node LSTP and LOP Devices”, 2004 IEDM, p.p. 91-94, for example).
To solve the above problems, a technique has been suggested to reduce the FLP phenomenon by adding an insulating material such as AlN or AlON to the interface between the silicide and the high-k film (see US Patent Application Publication No. 2005/0269635A1, for example). This technique is effective especially for lowering the threshold voltage of a p-channel MIS transistor. Accordingly, an AlN insulating film or the like is added to a p-channel MIS transistor, so as to lower the threshold voltage by approximately 0.4 V. With this technique, however, there is a problem that the additional insulating film such as an AlN film or an AlON film reduces the gate capacitance, resulting in degradation of the transistor performance of the p-channel MIS transistor.
Also, there has been a report that an aluminum oxide added into the interface between a gate electrode and a HfSiON gate insulating film can lower the threshold voltage Vth of the p-channel MIS transistor (as disclosed by H.-J. Li and M. I. Gardner in “Dual High-k Gate Dielectric with Poly Gate Electrode: HfSiON on nMOS and Al2O3 Capping layer on pMOS”, IEEE EDL, p.p. 441-444, for example). By the technique disclosed by H.-J. Li and M. I. Gardner in “Dual High-k Gate Dielectric with Poly Gate Electrode: HfSiON on nMOS and Al2O3 Capping layer on pMOS”, IEEE EDL, p.p. 441-444, polysilicon is employed for the gate electrode, and the FLP phenomenon at the interface between the aluminum oxide and the polysilicon gate is utilized to lower the threshold voltage Vth of the p-channel MIS transistor. As in US Patent Application Publication No. 2005/0269635A1, an aluminum oxide serving as an additional insulating film has the possibility of degrading the performance of the p-channel MIS transistor. However, according to H.-J. Li and M. I. Gardner in “Dual High-k Gate Dielectric with Poly Gate Electrode: HfSiON on nMOS and Al2O3 Capping layer on pMOS”, IEEE EDL, p.p. 441-444, the physical film thickness of the HfSiON film is reduced by the amount corresponding to the amount of the added aluminum oxide, so that the total thickness of the gate insulating film cannot become larger. Because of this, the transistor performance is not degraded. However, the process of selectively reducing the film thickness of the HfSiON film is required only in the p-channel MIS transistor, which is quite difficult in practice where the actual manufacture is performed.
As described above, since the threshold voltage of a CMOS transistor that combines the FUSI technique and a gate insulating film formed with a high-k material cannot be lowered to a desired value, higher performances of CMOS logic devices, such as higher-speed operations and lower power consumptions, have been strongly hindered. It has been found that the threshold voltage Vth of a p-channel MIS transistor can be lowered by adding an insulating film such as an AlN film or an AlON film to the interface between FUSI and an Hf-based gate insulating film, so as to eliminate the FLP phenomenon at the interface that hinders the higher performances. However, the insulating film at the interface reduces the gate insulating capacitance, resulting in degradation of the transistor performance. To counter this problem, there has been the technique of reducing the film thickness of the Hf-based gate insulating film by the amount corresponding to the amount of the Al-based oxide. However, this technique complicates the production process, and cannot be put into practical use.